A DEVIATION SCANDAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14825, 31 October 1911, Page 6

A DEVIATION SCANDAL.

The protest made by an Ongarue correspondent against the unjustifiable action of the Minister for Public Works in arbitrarily devising a new route for the Ongarue-Stratford fine should be carefully considered ! by all who have the public welfare lat heart. In this protest—which, J appears in to-day's Herald—attention is drawn to the sudden presentation in an exhausted Parliament of a Railway Authorisation Bill amendment cutting out Ongarue as the northern starting point of the Stratford connection with the Main Trunk Line, and transferring it to a place called .Te Koura, on the specious plea that the new route will save I six miles in construction and £60,000 in cost. It is the easiest thing in the world to save money, by avoiding legitimate expenditure, but the purpose of railway construction is not fulfilled by such economy, even supposing the figures turned out to be correct. As our correspondent points out, in dealing with this phase of the question the route i from Ongarue is an advantageous | one while that from Te Koura is ! extremely difficult. But such considerations appeal so little to Mr.. R. McKenzie that he appears not to havo troubled to wait for a com- ! pleted trial survey of his newlyadopted scheme ; while his contemptuous ignoring of engineering advice in his deviation of the North of Auckland Main Trunk is an example of his attitude towards experts. There is every reason to assume that, even apart from equity and utility, this autocratic change .of route will save the country very little indeed, for it has been frequently demonstrated by experience that administrative figures are lamentably unreliable. In equity and utility, the claims of Ongarue and its districts are simply unanswerable. The Ongarue route has been proclaimed over and over again. It has given official name to the project and has been accepted in good faith by settlers who will bo most seriously affected by a scandalous breach cf faith on the part of the Government. It would open up, at a moderate cost, attractive land which this craftily devised deviation will exclude from participation in its benefits. If we look for an explanation of this gross violation of repeated Ministerial promises we look in vain unless we recognise that the unpardonable offence of any district or of any section of the public is to resent cavalier treatment at the hands of the Government. It has been part of the Public Works policy of the Ward Cabinet, ably promoted by Mr. R. McKenzie, to spend as much money as possible upon Southern railways and as little as possible in the North, particularly in connection with Auckland. Construction of tho East Coast line from the Waihi end has been stubbornly resisted for years, and a similar disposition has been shown towards commencing work at Ongarue for the Stratford line. Persistent agitation and the exigencies of an electoral campaign have compelled the Government to surrender, but. Mr. R. McKenzie, with an autocratic authority only possible in a so-called democracy, imagines that he justifies his attitude towards the Oegarue-Stratford line by passing his official pen through past promises and undertakings, and laying out a new route. That it is inferior in every respect and that it is a violation of administrative good faith do not weigh with those we have set in authority over , us, but ought to trp.ip-b with electors far and wide.